The annual Christmas challenge was the final event on the 2004 Victorian racing calendar. A strong attendance in competitors and especially spectators and along with a fine day proved to be the perfect combination for some good racing. Predominantly a V8 event, it was good so see so many racers running well, as evident by the many wheels up launches on the day.

The final Off-Street drag meeting for 2004 was held at Calder Park on Friday night under a perfect Melbourne summer evening. Over 170 cars filled the staging lanes on top of a good showing of spectators. The Off-Street drags will continue at Calder Park every Friday night in 2005 starting January 14th.

Matthew Yanner’s ‘BOOST-0’ VL turbo has entered the fullBOOST VL Top 20, running an opening pass of 10.01/130 at Friday’s Calder Park Off-Street Drags. Still using a stock RB30 bottom end, it shows how strong these Nissan engines are. Andrew Sanders of Specialised Power Porting is responsible for a lot of the work on the car. The car looks like it will run well into the nines once Matt turns the boost up.

Andrew Dyson’s new RX-7 drag car was out for a few tuning passes at Calder Park on Friday night, the new paint scheme looking fantastic. The guys are still sorting out the tune on the methanol fueled 12A single turbo powered Mazda, but Andrew did manage to run into the 10-second zone.

A very windy night met racers and spectators at Friday’s Calder Park Off-Street drags. Highlights included the Bresciani Racing team out once again in two of the quickest VL turbos in the land. Danny Bresciani ran against his brother John side by side for a 9.03/154 pass in the PANNIC BT1 against John’s new personal best of 9.47/147 in Terry Sakr’s VLGMH black Calais.

Intermittent showers caused delays during Saturday’s All Performance Challenge at Heathcote Park. Despite the rain, the show went ahead and we still saw some strong numbers laid down. The Bresciani Racing team had fours cars out. Flying the VL turbo flag was Danny Bresciani driving the 8-second ‘PANNIC’ BT1.

With the forecast for heavy rain on Friday night, the heavens didn’t let us down, bringing an early ending to the Calder Park Off-Street drags. A highlight however was Richard's JPC modified 300ZX running a 10.94 at 123mph pass. Now the quickest in Australia, the big Nissan was shifting gears through a factory manual gearbox.

The warm up day for the Nationals at Willowbank saw around 90 cars hit the track, some completing license passes and others testing new setups on the track. Daniel Peatey ran an amazing 7.44/178.36 on his Pro Stock Bike (Current National record is 7.55). Victor Bray reeled of a 6.26/229.71.
Russell Pavey's Supercharged Outlaw Morris Minor certainly turned a few heads and with a 7.44 at only 140mph, showing that the little black weapon has tons of potential.